Vilamoura Marina, in a ceremony realized in London, received the award for The Best International Marina, a prize that rewards only the best of the best in the category of ” International Marinas”.

The vote was held exclusively by the owners of vessels which, during the year of 2014, visited the Marinas classified with 5 anchors.

As with Hotels, Restaurants, Automobiles, etc., Marinas are sorted and ranked depending on the quality and versatility of the services they provide. The classification is made of 1 to 5 anchod (maximum level of excellence and quality).

Vilamoura Marina has held, since many years, the “Sanchors” maximum score by TYHA, THE YACHT HARBOUR ASSOCIATION, with the support of the British Marine Federation.

It should also be mentioned that, from 2011 to 2014, consecutively, the Vilamoura Marina has been winning the prize awarded by Publituris trade award for the ” Best Portuguese Marina”.

Having celebrated 40 years of existence in 2014, this MArina is the pioneer, the largest and oldest in Portugal, strategically adapting its infrastructure to every new needs that arise in this área. ISO 14001 and 9001 certified, respectively for environment and quality management, the Vilamoura Marina also displays the European Blue Flag recognition.

The award now received, “Best International Marina 2015″, is the recognition of all the hard work and effort of a team that remains committed to clientes and the services it offers, and who takes pride in a Marina always young, renewed and betting on tourism of the future.

For 41 years, the Carnival is celebrated with the greatest proof dinghy that takes place Portugal.The International Tournnament Carnival sailing takes place in the coming days 14, 15 and 16 February and promises to be one of the best editions ever.

For 41 years, the Carnival Tournament is celebrated without interruption, as part of the international ISAF calendar since 1997. The organization of the event is of CIMAV ,(Clube Internacional da Marina de Vilamoura) responsability that has already ensured that this special edition will “book surprises” to hundreds of sailors participants.

Crews from Switzerland, England and Ireland have already confirmed their presence, as well as 3 hundred sailors coming from clubs around the country, that will attend this great celebration of dinghy sailing.

There are golden opportunities to be had when buying a home in Portugal

“If you are the sort of person who enjoys spectacular white beaches, organic food, excellent local wine, golf resorts, watersports and an extremely pleasurable climate – and if you are in favour of snapping up an overseas bargain – you could do worse than buying a property in Portugal.

“The rat race doesn’t exist here as such,” says Keely Kapel, 30, who sold her maisonette in Windsor five years ago and bought a three-bedroom villa in Vilamoura, a town in the Algarve. “People take time out for friends and family, to relax and enjoy themselves. And the locals are very friendly to the British.”

Whereas many Britons buy second homes in Portugal, Keely was so attracted to the country that she took the plunge and moved there permanently. She used to work as a recruitment consultant in London, and has a similar job in Portugal. But the atmosphere, she says, is completely different.

“I do work hard here,” she says, “but I have better quality of life. I can go to the beach on Saturday afternoons, go to a very good fish restaurant and spend €10 (£8.50) instead of £100, that type of thing. I wake up to blue skies every morning instead of clouds. It’s like heaven.”

The financial crisis of 2007 left the Portuguese economy reeling. It became very difficult to get a mortgage, investors lost confidence, and scores of new developments stood empty. Now, however, the economy has stabilised, but the house prices are much lower than they were before. This means good deals for British buyers” …but keep in mind that prices are now increasing and properties are selling quick, leaving less options around.

Estoril the 18.10.2015

For the final round of the European Le Mans Series season, the competitors will discover a new track and a new country. In fact Portugal has welcomed endurance races in the past. First in Portimao (2009 and 2010) and the last Le Mans Series event took place at Estoril in 2011.

Located near the Atlantic coast about thirty km from Lisbon, the Estoril circuit was born in 1972 and has undergone numerous transformations since its creation. It offers a unique configuration: a long straight followed by a series of highly technical sequences. It will require a versatile car, with a good top speed and agility in a series of fast bends.

In 1984, the Estoril circuit was also the scene of a great moment in the history of motor sport: Niki Lauda recaptured the the position of World Champion in Formula 1 after two years of retirement, beating McLaren team-mate Alain Prost by a half-point.

The Loulé Carnival is the oldest continuous event Portugal, with over 100 years of celebrations. Thousands of revelers jam the streets. Those in costume strut their stuff. others are there to watch and enjoy. The parades on each of 14, 15 & 17 February, are full of floats, samba groups, Brazilian dancers and giant costumed characters, providing a rhythmic beat, lots of laughs and pure enjoyment.

For 2015, Loulé has been designated “Europe’s City of Sport”. Sports events and will take place throughout the city all year, and certainly, “sports” is the theme of this year’s Carnaval.

The fun begins on Friday, 13 February. This is a day dedicated to kids! The children’s carnival kicks off at 10:00, coming to the streets with their faces painted and in costumes.

Shiller, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2013 for his modeling of asset-price fluctuations, said that:

“You can’t free yourself from the prison of the zeitgeist unless you become a smart beta person and start mechanically doing investments that don’t sound right,” said Shiller on Tuesday. It also makes sense to invest in Russian, Portuguese and Italian equities, according to the model, he said.

Shiller was speaking at a media seminar at Barclays Plc to promote asset-management firm Ossiam’s new exchange traded fund, which will invest in Europe using Shiller’s CAPE model for identifying long-term under and over valuations of equities.

Smart, the company behind Smart car has designed a special traffic light at a busy intersection in the city of Lisbon, Portugal. When you go to cross the road at this intersection, you’ll notice the little red man on the traffic light isn’t standing inanimate like every other traffic light you’ve ever seen… no, this one is dancing. Earlier this summer, Smart organized a clever little campaign with the Portuguese government to have a little booth installed beside the intersection where people can walk in off the street and start dancing. A camera picks up their movements and projects them onto the “don’t walk” pedestrian traffic signal in real-time. The idea behind this was that traffic lights are generally the most dangerous spots in urban areas, and that many pedestrians are too impatient to wait for the light and cross at inappropriate times when they can get hurt. As it turns out, this was just the thing to prevent it. The people at Smart found that 81% more people were stopping at the red light since they installed the dancing traffic light. This is the latest and perhaps biggest stunt so far in Smart’s #WhatAreYouFor campaign, which encourages people to suggest innovative ideas for more convenient city living via social networking. The campaign strives to make city life “easier, brighter, and more carefree each and every day” with an emphasis on traffic. Smart has subsequently enjoyed a huge surge in online attention, with nearly 2 million likes on Facebook and their dancing traffic light video exceeding five and a half million views on YouTube. It seems the dancing traffic light stunt was also successful on another front – getting the #What AreYouFor campaign some serious global exposure. The Smart automobile company suffered some drastic ups and downs before reaching a point of stability with the success of the Smart car. In fact, the company lost nearly 4 billion euros between the years of 2003 and 2006. Now, with campaigns such as this one, Smart is spreading awareness of traffic safety.

Watch people getting their groove on to the Lisbon Dancing Traffic at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB_0vRnkeOk . – See more at: http://www.mobilelikez.com/world-news/dancing-traffic-light-in-portugal/#sthash.28Co8D3U.dpuf